Description
Overview: Perfect Foundation in text analysis for students from Years 7 to 10
An Australian Anthology: A snapshot of literary landscapes works in tandem with How to Write an A+ Essay to help students improve their text response skills. They will work through key ideas, the social, cultural, political and historical world-of-the-text, topic sentences, key ideas, the author’s views and values as well as literary features. They will plan and analyse their ideas in paragraphs and essays. (See sample paragraphs and essays.)
An Australian Anthology comprises a snapshot of the diversity and depth of Australian literature. The A+ Text response booklet helps students analyse the texts, develop their ability to analyse the multi-layers of meaning within the text and to conceptualise the author’s key ideas and views, values and message. The focus is on structure, key literary features and a smart use of metalanguage to help a more complex analysis. (See How to Write an A+Text Response)
Chapter 1: The stories and poems of the First Nations people focus on their dreaming and cultural beliefs since time “immemorial”. The stories also deal with the aftermath of colonisation — dispossession and “stolen” children. Despite their ongoing trauma, a humorous and resilient spirit shines through.
Chapter 2: Stories by authors in the colonial period (1888-1914) primarily depict life in the bush. These stories and poems reveal romanticised and sentimental portraits of the vast outback, controversial ideals of mateship as well as critical depictions of the gender and city-bush divides.
Chapter 3: Multicultural mixes: Immigration did not start with the dismantling of the White Australia Policy in 1966. However, with the demise of the policy, immigration increased rapidly and official policies shifted to “multiculturalism” and integration.
Chapter 4: These stories provide a recent insight into the disruption and disaster caused by the coronavirus pandemic and widespread environmental destruction. Whether it be coping with lock-downs and physical distancing measures, or devastating fires, individuals are undergoing experiences for which there is no blueprint. Somehow, these stories also contain glimmers of hope and joy. Another silver-lining of rapid social flux is increased tolerance for diversity and the emergence of diverse literary voices.
